Persuaded that the most efficacious means of making the Spanish Ministry return from their infatuation are to be found in the obstacles which they will meet at Paris and at London, if Mr. Canning is sincere, and that efforts made at Madrid would be not only fruitless, but that they would add still more to the misunderstandings and jealousies which so often complicate and pervert the best intentions

France must have been responsible for the war, which Spain would have provoked, and would not long have escaped herself, from mingling in the contest. If Portugal were forced into a war, had she thought proper to have called the Spanish exiles to her assistance, the British government could not have counselled her to abstain from such a measure. In that case, it would have been not a war between Portugal and Spain, but a war between the Constitutionals and Apostolicals. In such a war, begun by Spain, and countenanced by the French army, it would have been difficult for France not to have joined. She could hardly have submitted to witness the re-establishment of the Constitutional fabric, which she had demolished, and the destruction of that which she had raised, at such a vast expense; while on the other hand, the maintenance of national faith would have compelled the British Government to send succours to Portugal.

"Thus France and England would have been engaged in a war, as auxiliaries of Spain and Portugal. But how long could such a relative state of things have lasted? Can it be supposed that Spain and Portugal would have continued principals in such a contest, for a week, or even for a day?

"The French Ministers saw the impending danger, and were really anxious to avert it, so far as they could do so, by the instructions which they sent to their Ambassador."

a right to be indemnified for certain losses for which Spain has declared herself responsible, in virtue of the treaty dictated by Mr. Canning to the revolutionary Cortes, the ratification of which was imposed on the King at the moment of his deliverance, under pain of England declaring war against him, and seeking to obtain by force the payment of her pretensions. When this ratification took place, it was supposed that the above-mentioned claims might amount to twelve millions of francs: the moderateness of the sum was indeed an argument which the Chevalier d'A'Court made use of to induce the Catholic King to recognise the engagements which the Cortes had made him take.

Since this epoch the two Courts have named a commission of liquidation, which has settled nothing. It is true that, by an article of the treaty, it was said that, in case of difference of opinion, it should be settled by drawing lots; this foolish or barbarous clause could not be executed; England, in putting forward an unjust or doubtful demand, was sure of a chance of fifty per cent, because the result of the chance must necessarily have been in this proportion. Fatigued with overreaching each other, the parties agreed to settle upon a determi

nate sum én bloc. In order to fix it, conferences were held at Paris, the result of which was the signature of a convention, by the Spanish Ambassador making his Court answerable for a debt of eighty millions of francs! This act, transmitted to Madrid, was not ratified. Count Ofalia has to justify in London the refusal. The enormous difference between the first claim of the English and the sum which has been passed to their account by the convention, consists in the legalization of a debt which, far from having been foreseen, was virtually excluded by the spirit of the former treaty. The First Secretary of the Spanish Legation, Colonel Cordova, is accused of having led the Ambassador into error; both of them declare that they have strictly executed their instructions.

This circumstance, M. Le Comte, adds to the proofs which the world already possessed of the ignorance and confusion, I dare not say of the corruption, which infect all the operations of the Spanish Government. The misfortunes, the losses of this great empire, the anarchy of its administration, the weakness of its Princes,* offer a lamentable exam

* In explaining, at a future period, the policy of Russia, during the eleven negotiations of M. de Tatistcheff with the Court of Madrid,

ple to all those who are called to contemplate it, and throw discouragement on the zeal of the boldest and most confident, who, animated by the desire of good, and exalted by the nobleness of the enterprize, have spared nothing to preserve that country, or at least to arrest the tide of its calamities.

I have the honor to be,

(Signed)

&c. &c. &c.

Pozzo DI BORGO.

P.S. Count Ofalia has just entered with me again on the subject of the proceeding in Spain, with reference to the withdrawal of the troops. He told me, that before quitting Madrid, he was completely ignorant of the determination of his Court on this point, and that the instructions which he has received from it, refer solely to the liquidation of the English debt, and to the non-ratification of the convention to which I allude in the Despatch;

when the Camarilla was entirely under the control, "we dare not say corruption," of the Russian Ambassador,— we shall point out to Spaniards of both hemispheres, the influence which has hitherto prevented the commercial re-union of the Spanish nations. It may suffice, for the moment, to add, that the South American states offered to assist Spain in defending her constitutional liberties against their overthrow by France, for Russian ends, with a subsidy of 20 millions of dollars.-ED.

that, to speak the truth, his Minister sent to him, whilst on his journey, a copy of the note presented to France by the Ambassador, simply for his information, and without adding other directions; that having well meditated on this note, he saw that it related to the establishment of a negotiation between Spain, France, and England, for the evacuation of the Peninsula, and that if this negotiation took place, it was natural to embrace in it the future state of Portugal, as a condition of the proposed evacuation, and of the cessation of the extraordinary military measures taken by the Cabinet of Madrid; that this mode appeared to him the fittest for bringing about a satisfactory conclusion, and that he was the more confirmed in his opinion after the audience which he had just obtained of the King, his Majesty having told him that he ardently longed to see the moment arrive, when the troops might quit the Peninsula without inconvenience, but that in the actual state of things, the interest of the King of Spain, and his own, required the continuation of the occupation, until the relations between Spain and Portugal should be established on a certain and unalterable footing.

M. d'Ofalia will write, therefore, to-morrow, to